Connecting to Earth, Connecting to Spirit

By Regan Parikh

“Hold any moment and see what is sacred in it and how that connects us to ourselves and our world.” These are the words of newly certified Anusara Yoga Kimber Simpkins, who left a budding career as a lawyer to pursue a more heartfelt path eight years ago.

Nestled amongst the outside tables at one of Berkeley’s many Indian restaurants, Kimber sits radiating a glow of vitality, with dewy skin and shiny chocolate hair, offset by her purple attire. She is centered like an earth goddess in her regal yoga threads, and truly is an ambassador for the earth. She holds a carton of a dozen eggs of various colors and shapes. “Aren’t these amazing! A student gave them to me from her own chickens!”

Food is in her blood and in her spirit. For the past four years, Kimber has been leading an annual yoga retreat in the spring at Full Belly Farm, just north of Vacaville. She started working on the Community Supported Agriculture farm just over eight years ago while she was pregnant with her son, and has been an active member of the farm since. This is not farfetched given that she grew up on a half-acre farm in Ohio that her grandfather owned. The farm and the practice of eating organically grown seasonal food inspires Kimber to share with her students a first-hand experience of our interconnectedness with food and nature.

“The retreat is a fantastic opportunity to connect with food again. Doing yoga under the walnut trees that your breakfast came from is a connection we don’t often have.” She continues, “The soil nourishes the food we eat, and we learn to ask  ‘How can I give back to the soil and the earth the way I receive it?’ “  Kimber takes her students on a journey of remembrance, where food comes from, the elements and beings that all grace the journey from seed to mouth: soil, water, insects, farmers, the people who harvest the food, drivers and so on. “Awareness is first,” she says. “It is an invitation to return our gaze to the reality of this process,” she adds, emphasizing “the reality”. With enthusiasm, she adds, “Food is so cool because it’s the outside world coming inside of us.”

Kimber’s yoga classes demonstrate her emphasis on cultivating awareness and honoring the cycles of life, both big and small. Before class begins, Kimber is already conversing and connecting with her students. She begins class with the Anusara invocation and shares her own experiences on how “Flowing with the tide is easier than going against it.”  She paints accessible images so the often abstract philosophies of yoga can easily be absorbed while practicing. “The actual meaning of Anusara is  ‘flowing in the wake of grace’,” , she explains, and then adds the image of waterskiing behind a boat. She encourages us to recognize what flow we are in, at any moment, and sometimes it may not be a flow we like much. She explains that once we become aware of the flow we are in, then we can steer ourselves with greater awareness. For example, she explains that if you get  caught in a riptide, “The best way to get out is to go with the direction of the tide and swim at an angle towards shore.”

While Kimber enthusiastically weaves yoga philosophy and day-to-day relevance into her class, she seamlessly teaches the yoga poses and gives her students enough space to explore the poses for themselves. This is key to Kimber’s style -- for her students to experience things for themselves. “Yoga is about experiencing first-hand for yourself, what it feels like in your body,” she says, and according to Kimber, this goes for any moment, not just in the yoga classroom. She concludes her class by sharing a heavenly chant accompanied by the harmonium. Her voice is pure and soothing, and transports one to a greater depth in Savasana pose. She explains later, “Music drops into our hearts where we’re least defended, and we can then drop into a sense of ease.” A sense of ease is certainly what one experiences in Kimber’s classes.

When talking with Kimber after class, her absorption of the teachings of Pema Chodron and Jack Kornfield becomes more evident. “Anything we turn our awareness to has the possibility of opening our compassion,” she says, speaking of motherhood, which brought her to yoga as she realized she needed to take care of her body to be an energetic and active mom. In addition to the physical benefits, “Yoga has helped me become less reactive, and respond to things instead of reacting,” she says. “My inner dialogue is more supportive and loving now”  -- most of the time.” The Buddhist practice of maitri, being your own best friend, is a practice she deepened through her studies with Chodron.

In the Fall, Kimber will be teaching a 50-hour Yoga Immersion at a small backyard studio in Berkeley. “Students will use the yoga practices in their lives, cultivating the teachings off the mat,” Kimber comments. “Yoga is the spirit embodied, no matter what you are doing.” Students will have the opportunity to practice just this.   

Kimber brings a marriage of intellect and heart to her yoga students, which is also a blessing for the earth. Kimber is a messenger of spirit for the earth.

 

The original version of the article was intended to be published in the May 2008 issue of Yogi Times.  With special thanks to editor Carolyn Brown and to Yogi Times for all their tireless work bringing yoga awareness to the local community. 

A Close-up with Kimber Simpkins

Love your yoga, love your body, love the world.

Yoga with Kimber