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Finding space in, and for, yoga
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Before finding yoga, Dominic Corigliano, whose dark curls had been buzzed like a monk's head, worked in the defense industry at General Dynamics. Corigliano, a yoga instructor who travels the world teaching and who studied with the yoga guru Shri K. Pattabhi Jois since the early eighties, says, “we should find space in our lives, whether it is in thoughts, music, or yoga. With so much information and ways of it coming to us, we lack space."
Allowing space for yoga involves finding time, but in the yoga we can find space.
Finding energy, that sense of buoyancy, purpose and inspiration in our lives is a form of daily maintenance. Each day is a new beginning, yet every day has an interdependency with the day before and the day to come. Once we get into a routine, it's easy to stick to because to do otherwise would take more energy. Plus generally, we like routine and reliability. "We like turning the key to our car and not thinking about how it sparks the engine as we drive off," Corigliano says.
Coming from an engineering background, Corigliano's brown eyes light up as he continues, "the tools (in our lives) change and hence humans change. The rhythms today are different, not like Louis Armstrong who knew perfectly when to allow the space to come in, or take Reggae."
A trumpet player himself, you get a sense Corigliano is someone who doesn't go long without some good tunes. He grew up with music, whether it was his mother's 40's French melodies from her home country or his Italian father's love of the Grand Ole Opre and early Willy Nelson.
At 12, Corigliano took steroid shots for allergies. "It was probably the amount they'd give a horse...and to a 12 year old," he said, his eyes wide in exclamation. The shots didn't sit well with him and he started experimenting with bee pollen and different forms of fasting, veganism, fruitarianism, raw, trying to rid himself of the allergies. Of yoga, he says as a kid he watched Richard Hillman and then did the dishes standing in tree pose. When he discovered bee pollen alleviated his allergies, it created a base--of which he would develop over the years--to an intuitive approach to life.
He hit the road at 17, hitching or riding motorcycles across country and down into Mexico. Yet as a lot of good kids of the 60’s and 70’s, he became a respectable citizen: three kids, a wife and a steady job as a software engineer. He managed systems that collected information from machine tools and made parts for the aerospace and defense industry. But when General Dynamics moved him to the West Coast he eschewed Burbank living, following his intuition, and moved to Encinitas. The roughly two-hour to commute to work did not do him in. Something was changing within.
In a small yoga church, he met his guru, Pattabhi Jois. A small handful of people had gathered to learn about yoga from this charismatic Indian man. “It was like an alien had landed from the moon,” Corigliano recalls. While still being a company man, Corigliano managed a daily yoga practice studying with yoga super teachers such as Tim Miller and Brad Ramsey.
Today, he no longer manufactures cruise missiles and F16’s. He teaches people he says, "who are working on themselves in such an intimate fashion and with so much love."
Corigliano practices six days a week at four thirty in the morning before he teaches. This is when he finds what he calls the "sacred space," or moving with integrity.
In Dominic's class the sacred space, however, is not all about sitting in lotus listening to your breath, although this does happen. 
Dom's class is active. He moves around a roomful of people assessing the poses with hawk-like precision, then swoops down to make an adjustment. He pulls your arm firmly around your bent knee, twisting, your hands miraculously clasp around your back. Sweat pours from your temples in the warm room and when the five breaths are over, he gives a loving pat on your back.
“Within the space we create an edge, he explains. "The edge is a place that’s a little uncomfortable,” something that pushes you forward. It’s “easier to fall into a yoga practice” than we think, he says. “All you have to do is find a pattern and play with it, then bring it to a new edge.”
Some reminders of how to make space in your life:
1. Identify your responsibilities and be responsible.
2. Identify your interests and be curious.
3. Avoid material, psychological and emotional clutter.
4. Get a good night’s sleep.
5. Eat food that doesn’t weigh you down.
6. Do something for fun.
7. Be creative.
8. Be kind.
9. Find spirit in everything you do.
10. Walk with integrity.
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