Vinyasa, led by Judy Moncrief of Joseph, is a yoga practice that flows from one pose to another. KATY NESBITT / The Observer

Joseph woman shares benefits of Vinyasa yoga

Even in the bucolic lifestyle of Wallowa County it can be hard to slow down, take time and find peace.

Getting to work, ferrying the kids to football practice, shopping, cleaning, cooking and paying bills can push the average person into a constant state of frenzy.

Judy Moncrief of Joseph offers a way to escape the hustle and bustle through Vinyasa yoga.

Moncrief is neither the first nor the only yoga instructor in the county. Classes are also taught at Stage One in Enterprise and the senior center in Wallowa. She said she doesn’t see herself as competing with the existing classes, but rather as offering another option to those seeking to incorporate yoga into their lifestyle.

Vinyasa is the style of yoga Moncrief leads and the Sanskrit word means “breath-synchronized movement.” Her Flowing With Grace Studio is named to emulate this style. Throughout her classes she reminds her students to breathe, inhaling into one position, exhaling into the next. The poses flow together like a dance as the class progresses.

Moncrief began practicing yoga in Pennsylvania while going through what she called a “terrible divorce.” She said it was the only way she could get relief.

“I’ve been practicing yoga for almost 20 years, almost every day of the week,” she said.

She later moved to Palm Beach, Fla., where she immersed herself in the practice. Eventually she became an instructor.

“I met a man who I took classes from who is a ‘teacher’s teacher,’ and in 2009 I took an Anusara class from him,” Moncrief said.

Anusara, she said, is a style of yoga that focuses on attitude, alignment, and action.

“Attitude is the energy you bring into the pose,” Moncrief said.

Her classes begin in a lotus pose, or crossed leg, as she leads her pupils through a Sanskrit chant. She said being able to sing is not important; the chant sets the mood for the hour or more of flowing poses. The class ends in meditation.

Alignment, the second tenet of Vinyasa, allows the energy to flow through your body, Moncrief said.

“You open up your body more by going sideways and align your shoulders so one is on top of the other, opening up the heart center, which opens up the life force within you,” she said.

In Florida she was a human resources manager at a medical device firm, and her passion for yoga played out in the Kula Yoga Shala community. Yoga was a two-way street in her life: she found healing and peace through the practice while developing compassion and empathy for the employees of her company, some whom made little more than minimum wage yet led happy lives, she said.

“During those six years in Florida I was fulfilled by my job and the people around me. I had compassion for my friends and co-workers and found the highest form of love is for yourself,” Moncrief said. “A yoga instructor teaches poses and alignment, “but it’s so much more than that – the yoga you take off your mat is way more important.”

Taking the yoga off the mat fulfills the third “A” of Vinyasa, “Action.” Whether one is at a traffic light or in line at the grocery store, “yoga off the mat” becomes a practice of patience.

Moncrief’s mentor, a 30-year-old man wise beyond his years, created an organization called “Karma Crew” that encouraged people to reach out to their less fortunate neighbors and complete monthly projects. One project was thoroughly cleaning the home of a single mother with six children, she said. An annual event, much more whimsical than cleaning, was a fundraiser on the beach.

“Every December we had a sand castle-building contest and raised $50,000,” she said.

The group also took yoga classes to local orphanages and shelters. They even took their healing practice to Costa Rica, she said.

“We hiked to crazy places, waded rivers to get to schools to do yoga and paint classrooms. Yoga goes way further than the mat,” she said.

As her heart for the marginalized and those around her grew, so did the idea of pursuing romantic love. She said when you take time to slow down, love becomes more apparent.

“Yoga has kept me in really good shape,” she said. “In addition, I would never have moved from Florida without yoga. I walked away from six-figure job to move to Joseph.”

In 2009, she met her husband, Dan, and they married this year. A well-known wildlife artist, Dan ceded his taxidermy shop to Judy and they transformed it into a yoga studio. She and Dan practice yoga together, she said.

On a typically chilly November evening, Moncrief’s pupils filed in to the inviting space heated by a wood stove, lit by candles, soothed by Indian music and smelling of essential oils. A man joined the small group of women and told Judy, “If it’s good enough for Dan, it’s good enough for me.”

Flowing Grace Studio is at 701 College St. in Joseph. Classes are at 9 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays and 9 a.m. Saturdays. For more information call 541-432-6785.